Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Abacus (2003), Edition: New Ed, 448 pages
Description
Ken Nott is a devoutly contrarian, vaguely left-wing radio shock-jock living in London. After a wedding breakfast, people start dropping fruits from a balcony on to a deserted car park below. As they get carried away, dropping more, they're told a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center.
User reviews
LibraryThing member RobertDay
Just when you thought Iain Banks' non-science fiction novels were getting into something of a rut - not entirely true, but easy to get that impression if you don't read them in order of publication - he came up, in 2003, with this story about an expat Scot in London in 2001 who is a highly
Everything ends happily, though. Some see the happy ending as a tacked-on getout, and it's easy to see why. But like most of Banks' central characters (I nearly wrote 'heroes' there, but there's little heroic about Ken Nott, the character in question), there is a transformation, a dark night of the soul and an emergence into daylight of sorts.
The main thing I took away from the novel was how enjoyably funny I found it (which makes the dark turn as we descend into Ken Nott's existential crisis all the darker). Banks' writing always showed off his Scots humour, but this was regularly laugh-out-loud funny. Moreover, I visualised Ken Nott as Banks himself, which perhaps made the book much more immediate to me. The politics is certainly genuine Banks, as is the inventiveness (Nott's plan to deflate a Holocaust denier on live tv has an elegant simplicity amidst the hoisting of petards). And of course, I remember the times, and although I didn't move in those circles, I knew some who did and heard the tales.
Collector's lament: the UK Little, Brown hardback first edition saw a completely new cover design for Banks' novels. It's a nice cover, but it's not the striking alternating white-on-black/black-on-white design, with illustrations by Peter Brown, of Banks' mainstream works up until then. This means that my collection of Banks first editions is not in any way uniform from 2003 onwards. This irritates me in ways that only a collector will understand.
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opinionated shock jock (literally!) on a London commercial radio station. His days are full of witty - if obscene - repartee, political rants of a Leftist nature, hedonism and glancing contact with the world of celebrity. Even the attacks on the Twin Towers barely shake his world, though they open up new avenues of controversy and argument for his daytime radio phone-in show. But at an exceedingly posh party given by the owner of the radio station, he meets the wife of a notorious London mobster and things start down a road that shows all the signs of ending really, REALLY badly.Everything ends happily, though. Some see the happy ending as a tacked-on getout, and it's easy to see why. But like most of Banks' central characters (I nearly wrote 'heroes' there, but there's little heroic about Ken Nott, the character in question), there is a transformation, a dark night of the soul and an emergence into daylight of sorts.
The main thing I took away from the novel was how enjoyably funny I found it (which makes the dark turn as we descend into Ken Nott's existential crisis all the darker). Banks' writing always showed off his Scots humour, but this was regularly laugh-out-loud funny. Moreover, I visualised Ken Nott as Banks himself, which perhaps made the book much more immediate to me. The politics is certainly genuine Banks, as is the inventiveness (Nott's plan to deflate a Holocaust denier on live tv has an elegant simplicity amidst the hoisting of petards). And of course, I remember the times, and although I didn't move in those circles, I knew some who did and heard the tales.
Collector's lament: the UK Little, Brown hardback first edition saw a completely new cover design for Banks' novels. It's a nice cover, but it's not the striking alternating white-on-black/black-on-white design, with illustrations by Peter Brown, of Banks' mainstream works up until then. This means that my collection of Banks first editions is not in any way uniform from 2003 onwards. This irritates me in ways that only a collector will understand.
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LibraryThing member helices
Lots of bullshit meant to be entertaining, with a radio disc jockey as main character. His political views are reviled, follow the process as he prepares his radio shows, etc. Furthermore, we get invited to follow a love affair of his, an affair that leads to unexpected events…
But – uh –
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En massa dösnack menat att vara underhållande, med en radiopratare i huvudrollen. Man får veta en del av hans politiska åsikter, följa en del av hans planerande inför sina radioprogram etc. Dessutom blir vi inbjudna att följa en kärlekshistoria han har, som visar sig ge förvecklingar som man kanske inte skulle anat...
Men - uh - vad ointressant. Skrivet på ett lätt språk (engelska - har inte sett någon översättning), och en del vändningar i dialogen är riktigt roliga faktiskt.
But – uh –
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it’s not interesting. It’s written in a light language and a few turns in the dialogue actually are quite funny.---
En massa dösnack menat att vara underhållande, med en radiopratare i huvudrollen. Man får veta en del av hans politiska åsikter, följa en del av hans planerande inför sina radioprogram etc. Dessutom blir vi inbjudna att följa en kärlekshistoria han har, som visar sig ge förvecklingar som man kanske inte skulle anat...
Men - uh - vad ointressant. Skrivet på ett lätt språk (engelska - har inte sett någon översättning), och en del vändningar i dialogen är riktigt roliga faktiskt.
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LibraryThing member baswood
An entertaining novel if you like this sort of thing. I enjoyed the first half of the novel on day one of my reading, but became less enthusiastic on the second day, when the story line became less probable as it wound up and then down to the expected climax. This is not one of Banks science
Ken Knott is a radio shock jock probably based on someone like Howard Stern, but Ken Knott is based in London (Scottish ancestry of course as this is Iain Banks) and he is fiercely left wing in his views and rants, which is probably a bit of a novelty. He typically invites controversy and lives on a narrow margin of stepping over an invisible line that could lead to him being fired. Of course he is lead by his prick in relations with women, boasting that relationships never last longer than a year, all well and good until he has an affair with a gangsters wife. Well you can probably guess the rest and you would not be far wrong
In this novel Banks chooses to interrupt the flow of the novel with his protagonist entering into anti establishment rants with anyone who will listen and sometimes with characters who do not want to listen. This gives the novel a lively platform for debate, especially in the first half and also sets the scene for the story to develop in the second part. The reader is in no doubt of Ken Knott's views and knows that it is going to lead him into trouble, but at the end of the day Knott is just as brash as the people with whom he opposes and it is easy to view him as his own worst enemy. I enjoyed Banks depiction of the life of an abrasive disc-jockey even if it skimmed the surface a little, but there are too many other characters that are recognisable stereo-types, however one recognises that this is a fast paced thriller that is written better than most and contains at least one excellent wise-crack:
I’m like the Egyptian fresh-water carp: I’m in denial
An entertaining three stars
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fiction novels but on the whole I still think his target audience was young heterosexual males. I am no longer quite so young. By 2002 Banks had over 18 novels published, about half of which were science fiction, his other novels had fallen into a bit of a rut with his protagonists being thirty something males making their way in a thriving Britain, whilst skating on the edges of the criminal underworld. Fast cars, fast women drugs and alcohol combine to give these novels their edge.Ken Knott is a radio shock jock probably based on someone like Howard Stern, but Ken Knott is based in London (Scottish ancestry of course as this is Iain Banks) and he is fiercely left wing in his views and rants, which is probably a bit of a novelty. He typically invites controversy and lives on a narrow margin of stepping over an invisible line that could lead to him being fired. Of course he is lead by his prick in relations with women, boasting that relationships never last longer than a year, all well and good until he has an affair with a gangsters wife. Well you can probably guess the rest and you would not be far wrong
In this novel Banks chooses to interrupt the flow of the novel with his protagonist entering into anti establishment rants with anyone who will listen and sometimes with characters who do not want to listen. This gives the novel a lively platform for debate, especially in the first half and also sets the scene for the story to develop in the second part. The reader is in no doubt of Ken Knott's views and knows that it is going to lead him into trouble, but at the end of the day Knott is just as brash as the people with whom he opposes and it is easy to view him as his own worst enemy. I enjoyed Banks depiction of the life of an abrasive disc-jockey even if it skimmed the surface a little, but there are too many other characters that are recognisable stereo-types, however one recognises that this is a fast paced thriller that is written better than most and contains at least one excellent wise-crack:
I’m like the Egyptian fresh-water carp: I’m in denial
An entertaining three stars
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LibraryThing member jalamb
Familiar Banks territory. First person narrative of a strong character, a shock-jock radio DJ with strong opinions on everything, who has many complex relationships with complex people. An element of mystery is introduced when he starts receiving death threats from an unknown source. After reading
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it you feel that you have experienced something. Show Less
LibraryThing member hotchk155
Brilliant characterisation, great social satire and ranting that Christopher Brookmyre would be proud of. Gripping, even though not a lot really actually happens. Has a couple of pant-wettingly tense scenes, particularly near the end, which leave you feeling like you were really there.
LibraryThing member xtien
Disc jockey in radio show tries to create as many censor beeps as he can without getting himself fired. The worst thing that can happen in his show is "dead air", that is, total silence for any period of time. To the personae, 9-11 has just happened.
LibraryThing member papalaz
I am a long time fan of Iain Banks and to come across this novel (Dead Air) in a local second hand shop both surprised and delighted me. The blurb on the back cover describes it as Banks' 9/11 novel but nonetheless I was more than happy to give it a go.
Banks' novels seem to be getting thicker with
Banks handles conflicted and fundamentally unlikable characters with a real feeling and in Dead Air he has several very believable examples to write. His women are sketchy and a little stereotypically whores or virgins but this is no unique shortcoming and of late he tends to favour grim-happyish endings - Dead Air is no exception.
In Dead Air he pulls his shock jock, his exotic virgin whore, and her gangster husband together in a mix that recalls the Greenaway's film The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover in an engaging and well plotted page turner. He handles the argot comfortably and the allegory very well. It's a sure fire winner and if this is your first Ian Banks it will encourage you to investigate his other works.
Banks' novels seem to be getting thicker with
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every new effort and in my opinion this is a bad sign. His first novel, and arguably his best, The Wasp Factory which I would recommend to any reader, remains his best and his shortest. Dead Air carries a fair bit of fat both in plot and in discursion but, true to form, he handles his allegorical mission with some aplomb (all of Banks' non-sci-fi works are allegorical and I sometimes wonder whether he isn't at heart an essayist or journalist in a novelist's garb somewhat like Will Self).Banks handles conflicted and fundamentally unlikable characters with a real feeling and in Dead Air he has several very believable examples to write. His women are sketchy and a little stereotypically whores or virgins but this is no unique shortcoming and of late he tends to favour grim-happyish endings - Dead Air is no exception.
In Dead Air he pulls his shock jock, his exotic virgin whore, and her gangster husband together in a mix that recalls the Greenaway's film The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover in an engaging and well plotted page turner. He handles the argot comfortably and the allegory very well. It's a sure fire winner and if this is your first Ian Banks it will encourage you to investigate his other works.
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LibraryThing member GirlFromIpanema
Brilliantly funny story on the state of affairs in the life of a London radio presenter after 11 September 2001. Came across this through Bookcrossing and had to get my own copy. Ken Nutt is an opinionated (left-wing) radio man, who provokes people with his daily talk-radio show. The book is an
A caveat: If you are easily offended by the other type of "language" you might consider not to read this one. It has more instances of the F-word than I can remember to ever have read in a single book! On the other hand Banks gets "cool" points for the shortest chapter ever.
BTW, the bookcrossing copy was released to a BBC radio presenter. Couldn't resist.
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account of his life after 11 Sept. (the day on which the story opens), and is at times funny, at times painful to read. I found the end a bit "tacked on", but still liked the book very much for it's lively language. A caveat: If you are easily offended by the other type of "language" you might consider not to read this one. It has more instances of the F-word than I can remember to ever have read in a single book! On the other hand Banks gets "cool" points for the shortest chapter ever.
BTW, the bookcrossing copy was released to a BBC radio presenter. Couldn't resist.
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LibraryThing member EricPMagnuson
One of his better ones
LibraryThing member viviennestrauss
After struggling through the first 106 pages, I am not willing to go further. I get the overall point of the book, I guess -- just not interested in slogging through. Too many great books out there to spend more time here.
LibraryThing member nx74defiant
I prefer Ian Banks Sci-fi to his contemporary fiction.
The 911 tragedy sets the time period when this happened, but it doesn't really affect the characters' lives.
I really didn't care for the narrator. He is too full of himself. He has built a career out of being outrageous. He has a girl friend he
I didn't deserve the happy ending he gets. But I like the thoughts on the Scottish verdict of not proven.
The 911 tragedy sets the time period when this happened, but it doesn't really affect the characters' lives.
I really didn't care for the narrator. He is too full of himself. He has built a career out of being outrageous. He has a girl friend he
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cheats on by having an affair with a mobster's wife yet still goes to a bar and picks up a woman. I had no sympathy for him when his girl friend broke up with him.I didn't deserve the happy ending he gets. But I like the thoughts on the Scottish verdict of not proven.
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LibraryThing member eldang
This is the book to read when beginning to tire of Iain Banks's non-scifi formula. It starts out seeming, well, pretty formulaic, but as the plot develops it becomes clear that the author realised he was in danger of falling into that sort of rut, and decided to play with the expectations that he'd
This book also captures the zeitgeist of 2001/02 London really beautifully - a time I remember particularly vividly because it was the last couple of years of me living in London's orbit.
I would recommend not reading this one until you've read a few of his others. It stands alone, but some of the surprises would have had less impact if I'd read it with a less of an expectation of what Iain Banks did.
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set up. The result is one of his lighter and more laugh-out-loud funny novels, even though at the same time it has some pretty pointed things to say about a thoroughly regrettable period of recent history, and in hindsight about the things that white men get away with. My one criticism is that at times the protagonist's political rants--which were clearly Banks speaking through a character--get self-indulgently long. Even agreeing with him I found myself wanting him to shut up and move the story on at times.This book also captures the zeitgeist of 2001/02 London really beautifully - a time I remember particularly vividly because it was the last couple of years of me living in London's orbit.
I would recommend not reading this one until you've read a few of his others. It stands alone, but some of the surprises would have had less impact if I'd read it with a less of an expectation of what Iain Banks did.
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LibraryThing member eldang
This is the book to read when beginning to tire of Iain Banks's non-scifi formula. It starts out seeming, well, pretty formulaic, but as the plot develops it becomes clear that the author realised he was in danger of falling into that sort of rut, and decided to play with the expectations that he'd
This book also captures the zeitgeist of 2001/02 London really beautifully - a time I remember particularly vividly because it was the last couple of years of me living in London's orbit.
I would recommend not reading this one until you've read a few of his others. It stands alone, but some of the surprises would have had less impact if I'd read it with a less of an expectation of what Iain Banks did.
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set up. The result is one of his lighter and more laugh-out-loud funny novels, even though at the same time it has some pretty pointed things to say about a thoroughly regrettable period of recent history, and in hindsight about the things that white men get away with. My one criticism is that at times the protagonist's political rants--which were clearly Banks speaking through a character--get self-indulgently long. Even agreeing with him I found myself wanting him to shut up and move the story on at times.This book also captures the zeitgeist of 2001/02 London really beautifully - a time I remember particularly vividly because it was the last couple of years of me living in London's orbit.
I would recommend not reading this one until you've read a few of his others. It stands alone, but some of the surprises would have had less impact if I'd read it with a less of an expectation of what Iain Banks did.
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LibraryThing member charlie68
Pretty good read if a bit coarse. Takes one through the inner workings of talk radio and London's dark underbelly, immediately after 9/11.
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Laddish account of urban hedonism punctuated with progressive riffs against the ugly signs of our times. Banks made me laugh, but appeared to be going in opposite directions. One could imagine the subsequent torque generated would be exciting. It wasn't, at least not in such an artiistic arc. Banks
I'd afford the novel another .5 for the dialogue which crackles.
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plays a comic suspense effect pedal adroitly over the last 70 pages. I was impressed with that but was baffled per the novel as a whole.I'd afford the novel another .5 for the dialogue which crackles.
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LibraryThing member timj
A gripping story line and a serious comment on twenty first century life.
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybody else calls being polite."
'Dead Air' is a cross between 'The Crow Road' and 'Complicity' and sees Iain Banks returning to familiar ground with his characters and plot.
Glaswegian Ken Nott is a devoutly left-wing contrarian shock
Ken isn't a particularly likeable character, he is a opinionated, drug-taking, self-centred lothario skipping from one sexual partner to another with little thought for the turmoil he leaves in his wake. The main story revolves around Ken’s affair with a gangland boss's wife. When Ken leaves an ill-advised telephone message on her home's answering machine his life starts to spiral out of control.
To tell you the truth at the end of this novel I wasn’t sure what it was actually about. OK, you see Ken bound up in some dodgy predicaments of his own making, from the deadly serious to the hilarious, but you don’t get a sense of a whole. It is well written, clever and funny with great characters and set scenes that made me laugh, I’m just not sure if it actually had a plot. We are simply dropped in to the middle of Ken’s life, we watch a few set scenes unfold that made me laugh, then it is over and everything carries on.
Don’t get me wrong I'm a big fan off the author's works even if they aren't for the morally squeamish and perhaps worryingly I found myself agreeing with many of Nott's rants but I also found it a bit shallow and vacuous. It's a bit like a McDonald's burger, it satisfies you for a short period of time but you are soon left wanting something more substantial.
'Dead Air' is a cross between 'The Crow Road' and 'Complicity' and sees Iain Banks returning to familiar ground with his characters and plot.
Glaswegian Ken Nott is a devoutly left-wing contrarian shock
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jock working for Capital Live!, a London commercial radio station where he rants about everything from religion to gun control to congestion, taking pleasure in belittling his listeners and receiving death threats. The story opens in September 2001 when Ken is attending a party in London just as the Twin Towers are attacked. The story opens with a bang and basically accelerates through one man's political obsessions dropping Ken in some interesting situations involving death threats, women, drugs and live television along the way.Ken isn't a particularly likeable character, he is a opinionated, drug-taking, self-centred lothario skipping from one sexual partner to another with little thought for the turmoil he leaves in his wake. The main story revolves around Ken’s affair with a gangland boss's wife. When Ken leaves an ill-advised telephone message on her home's answering machine his life starts to spiral out of control.
To tell you the truth at the end of this novel I wasn’t sure what it was actually about. OK, you see Ken bound up in some dodgy predicaments of his own making, from the deadly serious to the hilarious, but you don’t get a sense of a whole. It is well written, clever and funny with great characters and set scenes that made me laugh, I’m just not sure if it actually had a plot. We are simply dropped in to the middle of Ken’s life, we watch a few set scenes unfold that made me laugh, then it is over and everything carries on.
Don’t get me wrong I'm a big fan off the author's works even if they aren't for the morally squeamish and perhaps worryingly I found myself agreeing with many of Nott's rants but I also found it a bit shallow and vacuous. It's a bit like a McDonald's burger, it satisfies you for a short period of time but you are soon left wanting something more substantial.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
448 p.; 5 inches
ISBN
9780349116648
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DDC/MDS
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